The present invention relates to an apparatus for removing the casing or skin from sausages, comprising feeding means for longitudinally advancing a continuous chain of sausages and a knife adapted to cut at least partially through the casing of each sausage in the chain in order to facilitate the removal thereof.
So-called skinless sausages or frankfurters are manufactured by filling meat or other stuffing into an artificial casing which forms a temporary skin during the processing of the stuffing and which is removed when the stuffing has obtained a sufficiently solid or coherent consistency. For removing the casing, which has been slit or at least scored by the knife, there are known peeling or skinning machines in which the sausage chain is advanced through an energetic jet of air which strips or flays the loosened casing from the sausages following which the casing is sucked away. The known machines emit a strong noise which is very annoying to the operator and which has made it necessary to place the machines separate from the remainder of the production equipment of the sausage factories, and this results in a less rational flow of the production operations with additional transport of the sausage chains and the peeled sausages to and from the peeling machines. An attempt to reduce the noise by means of sound attenuating shielding results in a reduced accessibility to the interior of the machine and thus prolongs the time necessary for remedying an interruption of the operation, such as when a sausage gets jammed in the machine.